Police shoot and kill bear on South Shore

Police on the South Shore were forced to shoot a black bear seen wandering around residential streets in Saint Jean sur Richelieu overnight.

The first calls came in from people living near the Les Legendes Golf Club. Then, early this morning, the bear was spotted quite some distance away, at the corner of Champlain and Louis Franquet, where police opened fire.

The carcass has been given to wildlife officials.

Police say the bear was about 2 years old, was 4 feet tall, and weighed about 160 to 170 pounds.

This is just so uncalled for and so inhumaine, the first instinct is always to kill and destroy....Where were wild life officials and why couldn't the bear be sedated and flown away to the wild by helicopter....This is just so not the right thing to do.

@Debbye
We as a society should "Force" police recruits to take IQ tests. This was a small harmless bear that could have easily been saved. Recruiting procedures for police have to change. It's clear to me that the reason the bear was shot, was simply recreation for these intellectually deprived morons who just love to fire their guns the first chance they get. That's it.

Obviously, it's so much cheaper to put a couple of bullets into the animal rather than try and rescue it. Never mind whose fault it is that the bear ended up where it did in the first place. Way to go, people. Way to go. Karma…

Living in the area and knowing where the bear was when he was shot, it is pretty obvious he was lost or something. He was alongside of the Richelieu River with no apparent placed to cross or forest. I can understand how the police must have been panicked to contain him. HOWEVER, most definitely not the way it should have been handled. There are many vet clinics in the area, hello KETAMINE!

This is extremely disturbing and uncalled for. Why did they NOT use a tranquilizer gun to calm him down and be re-located in the woods with others of his kind. Horrendous that they KILLED an innocent baby without even really TRYING to SAVE him!

So sad that our Police force could not think of another way to take care of the bear. The police department seem to be a little trigger happy. Also, I feel the media finds ways of excusing the police actions by reporting that, " police....."WERE FORCED TO SHOOT A BLACK BEAR SEEN WANDERING AROUND RESIDENTIAL. STREETS", was this bear aggressive and threatening or was it just lost and trying to leave the area. So sad that they could not find another way to deal with this situation.

While I understand freedom of expression, it's obvious most people here have never faced a scared animal. "Use a tranquillizer gun" or "call in the SPCA" wouldn't have worked. An animal that is scared or feels cornered will become dangerous. A 2 year old bear would have no qualms about killing a human if it feels threatened. Were the police supposed to try to talk it down? Please, think about this. This happened overnight some time. Presumably there was no one on duty at the SPCA. Police don't have tranquillizer guns on hand. They needed to resolve the situation as quickly and as efficiently as possible.